


En Prendre de la Graine et Tourner la Page

by TabooMonster123



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Anniversary, Established Relationship, Gift Fic, Gift Giving, M/M, spoilers for part 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 21:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17251649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TabooMonster123/pseuds/TabooMonster123
Summary: Re:vale's sixth anniversary is coming up— and Yuki and Momo's fifth— and Yuki has the perfect gift idea. In order to give it, however, he must work through some deep seated anxieties about Re:vale's past, present, and future.





	En Prendre de la Graine et Tourner la Page

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas and happy New Year! This is the I7 Secret Santa gift for 0omfdo0/mfdscribblescorner. I hope you like it!

_I want to sing it with you, Momo. Someday. I'm still afraid, but someday._

_After all, it's as if that song were written for you, Momo._

Yuki's words— his own words— rolled around his head for months after that night. They appeared almost at random, rendering his mind an empty desert with nothing but his promise being blown around like a tumbleweed. With every day that passed his words came back to him more and more often. They reminded him of the calendar reminders Momo put in his phone. The more time passed, the closer to some unknown deadline he got, the more numerous they became, until one night Yuki woke up in realization that Re:vale's sixth anniversary was less than a month and a half away.

Which meant five years of him and Momo being together.

He felt Momo's soft breathing against his neck distantly. It made sense to release something on their anniversary. Nevermind that they'd already released a full album that year, or that six wasn't a terribly important anniversary. Nevermind, either, that the fans would be expecting something anyway.

This anniversary would be important to _them._

Momo shifted in his sleep, curling his hand around Yuki's bicep and tucking his nose further under his shoulder. Even completely dead to the world Momo molded himself around him, taking what Yuki was able to give and folding himself into the missing pieces. That was Momo to the core: intentionally filling in the gaps in the people around him, selflessly putting others before himself because he could not be truly happy until the people around him were, too. Yuki had no idea what he'd done to deserve such an extraordinarily caring person, but he was determined to prove himself worthy.

It's what Ban had done for him, after all.

Yuki turned his head, breathing in the faint scent of shampoo coming off Momo's hair, and as he drifted back to sleep an idea began taking root in the back of his mind.

\----------

According to his computer, over an hour passed before Yuki finally managed to open the song file. He knew Momo and Ban both had copies they still listened to, but the last time Yuki had heard the opening to Mikansei na Bokura his best friend ended up in the hospital. Even reading the file name was akin to staring into his knife drawer for too long.

But Yuki decided a long time ago he'd brave nearly anything for Momo. After one last steadying breath, he clicked the file open and braced himself for terror and trauma to rip through him.

It never came. He sat there staring at rows of instrumentation layers and feeling incredibly stupid. It had been so long since he'd thought about Mikansei. He honestly didn't know if it would still affect him as much as it did.

He hit play.

The opening phrase screamed out of the speakers and ricocheted around the room and into his skull. A wave of grief clawed up his throat. It was like being thrown to the ground and into the past— he and Ban were directing Momo around where to put the mics and speakers, and then he was staring out at the crowd singing his heart out, and then there was _blood,_ so, so much blood, and someone was screaming—

And then it was over. The music stopped. Yuki glared blindly at the screen, breathing raggedly. His throat hurt. He felt like someone had taken his heart and run it through a blender.

But he’d made it. It hadn’t killed him. He’d managed to listen all the way through, and he knew from experience that the more he exposed himself to the things he associated with that day the easier it got, even if the process was exhausting. There was hope.

Reinvigorated, Yuki reset the file to play again from the beginning, glad he’d waited until Momo was out to start working. But when he went to turn the volume down, he was surprised to find it already at the lowest setting.

\---------

Yuki managed a little over three hours of work that first day. Most of it was dealing with the slightly older quality of the file. He should have expected this; he’d have to figure out how to get Mikansei up to modern Re:vale standards.

But that meant he’d likely have to redo everything. He’d have to replace his and Ban’s instrumentation with better quality recordings, and he’d already have to re-record the vocals. In the end, if he replaced every piece that made up Mikansei, wouldn’t it no longer be the same song? Wouldn’t it become a fundamentally different song to the one Momo listened to all those years ago, to the song that brought them together?

Fortunately, Yuki had one resource who could understand exactly what he was talking about. Unfortunately, Ban wasn’t nearly as helpful as he’d hoped.

“You have the best anniversary gift idea anyone could possibly come up with,” Ban gestured emphatically with his beer bottle. “Stop moaning about making it perfect.” At the other end of the bar, the bartender kept glancing over at them while rearranging liquor bottles under the counter. Ban wasn’t recognizable, but Yuki very much was, and he wasn’t sure stuffing all his hair under a hat was working as well as he’d thought it would.

“You are completely missing the point,” Yuki tucked his hair more firmly under the brim, glowering. “I can’t justify giving him something so meaningful if it isn’t finished. And he’ll _know_ if it isn’t,” he insisted. Lowering his voice, he added, “Momo can read me better than you ever could. If he sees that I’m uncertain about this he’ll fret and worry and defeat the purpose of the gift entirely.”

“You’re overthinking this,” Ban complained. He called the bartender over for another round, and Yuki neatly avoided the pointed stare aimed at him. They waited for him to leave before Ban continued. “Choose one point of focus and stick with it. Either pick making Momo a gift or perfecting an old song. One or the other, Yuki. Don’t try to do both.”

The conversation lulled after that, each lost in thought, until the bar announced that it was closing for the evening. Banri, pleasantly buzzed, hopped off the barstool with a grin. “Thanks for buying me drinks, Yuki. Good luck with your little project.”

_Of course I’m buying._ “You can pay me back by driving me home.”

“Absolutely not.”

\--------

One week until their anniversary promotion planning meeting with Okarin. The weight of the looming deadline increased with every audacious calendar notification. Every day that passed saw Yuki spending more time in his studio until Momo himself began to notice.

Yuki had now spent five hours trying to pick a file compression type that would meet modern industry standards without compromising Mikansei’s older feel. His forte was composing music rather than re-working it, and he was very close to collapsing into emotional exhaustion when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in!” He went into a window-closing frenzy, barely managing to swivel around to face the door opening.

A toothy grin popped into the room. “Yuki!” Momo said. “I brought coffee and pastries. Are you going to come out of your cave so I know you’re still alive?”

Something about his tone told Yuki he didn’t really have the option of refusing. “Of course.” He turned the monitor off as unobtrusively as possible and followed his partner out of the recording studio.

Yuki’s apartment had two bedrooms. One he’d converted into the studio; the other had floor-to-ceiling windows making up the far exterior wall for what should be a fabulous view of the city. Yuki couldn’t really remember— for years now he’d used that side of his bedroom as a greenhouse, complete with a low table for repotting his plants and a space heater to keep them warm in the winter.

“Oh good, it’s clean.” Momo threw himself onto the floor, brushing invisible dirt off the table. Yuki sunk down next to him. Momo fished around in the bag for a moment, then pulled out a croissant and handed it and a coffee cup to Yuki.

He took a sip. “Momo is so good to me,” he hummed.

Momo made a high, sharp noise. “Yuki!” he whined. “You’re so suave. I just brought you coffee.”

“Well, it is good coffee,” Yuki replied.

Momo bumped their shoulders together, groaning. “You’re killing me,” he said, leaning his head against Yuki’s. Yuki watched him discreetly out of the corner of his eye. The light coming through the glass filtered through so much foliage it shone green on Momo’s face. Distantly he registered that green was _really_ not Momo’s color, the dappled light bringing out the gold undertones in his skin and making him look jaundiced, but all Yuki could focus on was the glow coming from under his skin. He looked like the plants did then, full of life and curling towards Yuki like _he_ was the sun. Like all Momo needed to survive was Yuki.

“What’re you thinking so hard about?” Momo asked, shifting his head onto Yuki’s shoulder to look up at him.

“You,” Yuki replied, and Momo squeezed his eyes shut, grinning. “Our anniversary,” he added.

Momo lifted his head in surprise. “Oh! That is soon isn’t it! Six years of Re:vale…”

“Five years of us,” Yuki added.

The look Momo sent him was unreadable. “Re:vale _is_ us?”

Yuki stared.

“I- I mean—” Momo floundered for words, gesturing so hard with his coffee it spilled onto the table. “We wouldn’t be together if it weren’t for Re:vale, so—”

Yuki pressed a finger to Momo’s lips. “It also wouldn’t be Re:vale if it weren’t _us,_ Momo.” Tearing up, Momo gently grasped Yuki’s hand in his, lacing their fingers together and pressing a kiss to his palm. “Yuki and Momo, and Re:vale… Separating them is impossible.”

“Is that so?”

“It is,” Momo said firmly. “Re:vale is our life, Yuki. And it’s not just us as a couple— we wouldn’t be ourselves as people without Re:vale.” He looked down as he played with Yuki’s fingers in his lap. “I don’t know if I’d be alive without it.”

A crescendo of emotion swelled behind Yuki’s sternum, lungfuls of emotion like he got right before the peak of a song. But there was no music here. Nothing but him and Momo, sat on the floor in a dimly lit room. So Yuki leaned his head down, touched his forehead to Momo’s, and did the only thing he could think of.

He began to sing.

“I was convinced I was so comfortable alone… You taught me to enjoy love.”

Momo whipped his head up in shock, staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at Yuki. Yuki looked up and met Momo’s eyes. He waited, and for a moment the silence between them threatened to spear through his chest and kill him. But Momo, voice shaking, opened his mouth and sang back.

“When we’re together, the future becomes better; I gently embrace your slumped shoulders…”

A smile stretched wide across Yuki’s face, relieved and joyful, and they kept going, their individual voices calling back and forth:

“I want to make that beautiful flickering into a steady light—“

“That day, there was nothing to fear—“

Finally, their voices rose, melding together into the emotional peak of the chorus.

“That’s right, we are incomplete, but we passed each other unexpectedly, and I stared up at the endless sky; but I can stand here because of you, steady your breathing, and start walking towards our dream.”

Momo broke first, dissolving into tears. Yuki wiped them off his cheeks and ignored the wet streaks running down his own. They folded into each other, still crying, and Yuki pulled him in as close as he could muster.

_Happy anniversary, Momo._

\-------

_Yuki (20:08) -_ Your advice was terrible. I can’t pit Momo against Re:vale. It doesn’t work that way.

_Ban (20:09) -_ You’re welcome www

_Yuki (20:09) -_ … You gave me bad advice on purpose.

_Ban (20:10) -_ I have no official comment at this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you all have a wonderful 2019. Please send kudos and comments my way if you liked it!


End file.
